Amazon Caught Selling Counterfeits of Publisher’s Computer Books–Again

I knew this would blow up. Sadly, Amazon/createspace (now called KDP) apparenty has no mechanism or will to ban users who abuse the system. I am a KDP author myself, with three titles under my belt in the nature/regional category. About three months ago I noticed flagrant copyright infringement of a well-known author in my field. The title had a one star rating, because a number of people had left negative reviews pointing out (in no uncertain terms) that it was not genuine.

I emailed and then called support (twice) and pointed it out. Even after escalating the issue as far as I could, it resulted in no action. Even a cursory review should have stopped the title from being published, since it was of ridiculously poor-quality (analogous to someone publishing a title called "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Legacy by J.K. Rowling" and having an apparently legit front cover but an interior filled with almost nonsensical, semi-autogenerated text). The fact that a title like this can be published on the platform at all indicates that the review process for new titles is sadly lacking any application of common sense.

I'm appreciative that Amazon is pushing the envelope in supporting self-publishers via their print on demand services, but by failing (and actually refusing) to police it they are giving a bad name to the whole enterprise. Through their inaction they are encouraging the copyright infringers and scammers to turn what could/should be a great service into a toxic ecosystem.

Actually I find ebay to be much better than Amazon for buying. I can read the seller reviews and I know they're generally legitimate. Particularly the negative reviews, which is all I need to see if I want to know what the seller does wrong, if anything.

I can look up a seller to make sure he's sourced an item properly, for example, newegg sells SD cards on ebay so I know newegg is sourcing SD cards properly and I'm good to go. Or I look up a seller and they claim to be a licensed Nikon supplier I know I'm probably ok or I could even call up Nikon to verify they're a licensed supplier.

If I want something fake/cloned I know I can just buy cheap from the chinese supplier and I don't have to pay a markup to a middle man. But if I want it right away, I can order from someone in the same state as me and pay a couple extra bucks, and I know it's the clone cuz the picture is the exact same.

You get a lot of information on ebay that you don't get on Amazon.

In the Tweet about one of the counterfeits, Bill Pollock says:

> Images of counterfeit copies of Python for Kids being sold on Amazon. Legit copies are thicker, color, layflat binding, nicer paper

I've noticed on occasion my local Barnes & Noble will have two copies of a book and one will be noticeably thicker than the other. Same edition, same cover art, same number of pages, but one just seems to be on thicker paper.

I've only noticed this in the computer section, but I generally only visit that section, other STEM sections, science fiction, and graphic novels, and of those only the computer section is likely to have multiple copies of books that are thick enough that a difference in thickness would be noticeable while browsing, so there may be selection bias here.

Does this mean counterfeits are even making their way onto bookstore shelves? Or do some publishers have a range of paper sizes they might use for a give book, and what is actually used varies from print run to print run?

There was a kid in the news recently who was electrocuted to death because of their fake charger.

https://www.health.com/home/cell-phone-electrocution

Its hard to admit you have a problem when your problem still brings in buckets of money everyday. I dont think they care, how much can a publisher or author sue amazon for peddling counterfeit wares? That is when it will matter, when they start losing large settlements.